I recently came across an amazing article quoting research into work-life balance and the impact working moms have on their children's future. While some old-fashioned views persist that moms should stay at home with the baby it turns out children, and specifically little girls, who have grown up in a household where mom works, tend to do better in life and get better-paid jobs.
In fact, employed women raised by working mothers were 1.29 times more likely to supervise others at work, spent roughly 44 additional minutes at their jobs and reported significantly higher annual incomes, according to the data. (Source)
In the UK alone, 4.9 million mothers with young dependent children clock into work every single day. And according to a growing body of research, working mothers have an overwhelmingly positive influence on their children. The researchers found that women who grew up with working mothers are more likely to have careers themselves when compared to those with stay at home moms. They’re also more likely to have better and higher paying jobs. Sons, on the other hand, grow up to spend more time doing household chores and caring for their kids if their mothers had careers.
At the very core of this phenomenon is the idea that children learn by looking over their parents' shoulders. We tend to mimic the patterns and behaviours that have been modelled to us as children.
Those of us who grow up in a home where both parents worked and split household chores are repeating those patterns in our own homes. I for one have been raised in a home where my mom has always been in employment. From a very early age, I remember her delegating household tasks, managing to squeeze in family time between shifts, and putting a great emphasis on education and her bettering herself at work. She always strived to be the best at what she did, never shied away from hard work and always reminded me that all work is honest work and there’s nothing to be ashamed of even if your job is to sweep floors.
Thank you Mama!
Watching my mom go to work every day and still manage to take care of our home and her family has set a model for how to manage a happy and healthy work-life balance. It’s been a great lesson that you don’t have to sacrifice your former self once you have kids, you can still be the professional career driven individual you were before.
Watching her navigate through life with a full-time job and 2 children has offered me lessons on how to manage time, plan my days and weeks, and how to manage finances. Another great lesson was the idea of self-care; how being selfish every now and then and taking time off for yourself is the way to keep yourself sane, healthy and happy.
For all these great lessons, thank you, mom!
